Cakes for Baby!

December ended up being a big month (other than the obvious big day, Christmas). Supergirl and Z-man welcomed a baby brother Adam with their Mom and Step-Dad Paddy, and one of Supergirl’s best friend’s welcomed a baby sister (the youngest of FIVE girls in that family!), Olive. What better way to say congratulations than cake! Supergirl really enjoyed helping with these cakes, so much in fact that I was relegated to observer for the most part!

There are a lot of different elements to this cake, some take longer than others. The first thing we did was to make the teddy bear topper for the cake. This is a candy mold I purchased at a local bulk food store. Hard to see here, sorry. You try taking a picture of something that is totally transparent!

A little easier to see here when you fill it up with melted chocolate. Lightly bang the mold against the counter to dislodge any bubbles (otherwise you will have a deformed teddy bear) and then pop it into the fridge for 15 – 20 minutes. Once the chocolate has set it should pop out of the mold easily. You can trim the excess chocolate with an X-acto knife.

While the molds are setting you can get the colored chocolate ready to paint the bow tie on the bear. This is molding chocolate that I picked up at the same bulk food store. I put a few discs into a glass dish which is placed on a rack in a pan full of water. Bring the water to a boil and the chocoalte will melt (if you have a microwave it would be easier I am sure to just pop it into the microwave, but I don’t have one!)

This is where Supergirl stepped up and pushed me aside. This is her painting the bow tie on one of the bears. Scroll back to the top and you can see how cute it is when it is done.

One thing I forgot to take pictures of was the process of making the white blanket the teddy bear is on. It is pretty easy though. Roll out a piece of white fondant and cut into the size you need. There is a shaping tool called a ball tool that you can use to press into the edges of the blanket that will give you the frilled look (pause here while you scroll back to the top again to get a look….). I did not have this tool though so I improvised and used a marble, worked pretty well I would say?

So, now that you have the teddy bear and the white blanket done, stick them aside (in a safe place where the dog, kids cats or anyone else will not nibble on them).

I did not take any pictures of the process of making the cake as it is just a cake, nothing special (well, ALL cakes are special I would say, but the process of baking a cake can get kind of boring to look at).

Supergirl jumped in here again(in her nice Christmas PJ’s) as it was her first opportunity to use a cake leveler.

The cake was then iced with a dark chocolate ganache (we were in a bit of a rush at this point so it is kind of messy here, sorry!)

Next step was to make some modeling chocolate to form the large blanket that would cover the entire cake. Melt your chocolate in a double boiler and then add clear corn syrup to the chocolate. Stir it until it is well incorporated and has a grainy texture to it, then set aside for three hours to cool.

Once cooled you can work it against the counter until it is pliable and then roll it out into a thin sheet. Supergirl showed her muscles here, hard at work.

Once it is rolled out trim it into a square shape (Supergirl could not resist sneaking into this shot too!)

From here mark out a grid on the square to follow with a pastry wheel

I did not have a pastry wheel so the closest thing I had to do what I wanted was a pasta cutter so Supergirl went to work. This requires a light touch otherwise you will cut right through the rolled out chocolate. Just enough pressure to leave the mark, but not enough to cut.

Here is the finished grid.

Carefully pick up the rolled out chocolate sheet and place it over the cake. On the back of the white blanket put a blob of royal icing to hold it in place, and then put a blob of royal icing on the back of the teddy bear and put that in place.

From there you can pipe into the squares on the blanket hearts and other shapes, and the lettering on the white blanket. I was only allowed to do one little heart on this, then Supergirl said “I can do it!” and did the rest, even the lettering!

Carefully lift the sides of the large blanket and put your finger under it and press down on either side. This will give the sides a slightly frilled look, like a blanket laying on the ground.

These cakes were a lot of fun to make, and not that hard (for me at least, I just stood around and watched Supergirl do all the work.) Welcome to Baby Adam and Baby Olive and congratulations to their parents.